The Fighting Knife

Looking at those photos and judging scale as best I can, I'm not sure you'd need to push the edge forward, unless you mean the main edge to keep the forefinger from slipping forward onto it. Such things are sometimes hard to judge from photos alone.
 
not the best photo, but this in an in hand shot:

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shortenint the reverse edge a hair would leave a bit more room for the thumb. Of course, adding a half inch to the handle and the blade would be nice, but that's where the sgian dubh is at. (well, okay, the Sgian Dubh blades are usually 4.5 to 5 inches)
 
Yeah, that gives a bit of a better impression of the size. I was estimating it a little larger, probably about 25% or so. I tend to prefer a saber grip myself, even with a very small knife, which on a knife in this size range (the little ipe puukko, for instance) means the heel of the grip tucked tight into the heel of my hand and my thumb almost straight along the top of the grip. I was estimating this as about the same size as the puukko, but from this photo it's actually a little smaller again.
 
and, sheath work is done on this one- I have another similar one and a larger version in progress.

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I have a longer one sitting here, ready when I get around to it to get a double guard and pommel- done as a through tang, but the tang is very beefy, about 1/4 x 5/8 inches all the way through. Partial double edge. Once That's done I'll look more at how I want to work out guards on this style. the integral handle material constructed semi guards I often do with the micarta and shadetree burlap composite handles work out very well, too.
 
I like the ricasso/choil/thumb rest on daggers, it adds alot of usefulness to the blade without sacrificing much. Boker's new AF EDC has a partial double edge as well. The handle is always a huge deal when it comes to fighting knives, especially daggers, because there are so many necessary grips that must be accounted for. I think the slight dip that you used is just about as good as it can get, offering a secure grip in a reverse hold. A mountain man style dagger would be neat as well, with more of a bushcraft oriented grind and sheath as a boot backup with alot of edge in a small package, something that could be easily lashed to a jo stick for self defense, hunting or fishing purposes. I think people write off boot knives so often because all the sheaths out there completely suck. They go for the neck knife instead. I believe neck knives are completely useless, because they so easily get snagged on things. Besides, the bouncing around on my chest drives me NUTS. If you could design a low profile boot sheath for a low profile dagger... you'd have found a niche that no one else has successfully filled. Our instructors taught us that most knife fights, whether professional or not, are decided within the first 3 seconds. Within 3 seconds, someone has caused a bleed that is large enough to be fatal or drastically decrease one's ability to defend themselves. I think the length of the blade has less to do with it, I think it's more of the length of the actual edge. A recurve or large belly that slices clean and deep is what I look for in a fighter (example, Ek's dagger design) Blocking with a knife isn't realistic unless you are a seasoned knife fighter, and how many of those do you know that aren't wearing ponytails teaching some off-style korean fighting technique on youtube? If you're trying to catch a thrust with the edge of you're knife, you better know what you're doing. I'd just as soon take the opportunity on the exposed bicepial artery and hope that I make contact and my assailant doesn't. A secure handle and ergo that allows a precise cut and the support to drive it is also a priority in my opinion. If you do want to go for deep cuts-tendons, organs, et cetera, it takes alot of wrist strength that alot of fighting designs don't take into consideration. That's where the partial double comes in handy-your thumb has that extra leverage it needs to push the cut in deep, while still giving you a completely usable second edge.
 
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Another thing I'll add, the light weight of 15N20 and the ridiculous slicing edge you use are probably the biggest contributing factors that you as a maker have for a fighting knife over anything anyone else has going.
 
stabman said:
That knife with Micarta scales, rounded pommel, and a single guard would be sweet.:thumbup:
Click to expand...

I'm looking at this some more and considering an integral semi guard version, with scales or wrapped handle, and a more rounded pommel. What I really liked about this one was the simplicity of the design. More guard is always good- the integral semi guards I have been doing on some of the other knives (like some trail knives and LBKs) work very well for grip security.
 
koyote said:
I'm looking at this some more and considering an integral semi guard version, with scales or wrapped handle, and a more rounded pommel. What I really liked about this one was the simplicity of the design. More guard is always good- the integral semi guards I have been doing on some of the other knives (like some trail knives and LBKs) work very well for grip security.
Click to expand...

Sounds perfect. Any pics as of yet?
 
It took me a while to get around to this- about 1.5 years, in fact.

I wanted the trail knife to have two versions, the second version being a micarta, shadetree, or G10 handle material with an exposed tang at the rear and some sort of blade coating.

Here, at last, is the first one. I used Brownell's Oxpho-Blue for it, it's pretty hard wearing, easy to use, and easy to touch up:

1: wipe knife, maybe wash it, maybe not

2: dip some steel wool (just a little bit) into oxpho-blue

3: scrub on.

That's it!

Anyway, knife specs.

OAL: 13" Blade 7 3/8" Length of scales approx 4 3/4 inches

Steel: 5160, quenched with the spine against the tank rim (this slows things down on the spine end of cooling and reportedly gives me a low 50s Rc on the spine), tempered 3 times with a downward ramping temperature. Differentially tempered along the upper spine for a bit more beatability.
Thickness of steel is .23 inches through the tang, maintained through the first 2/3 of blade length.

Grind: Full convex. Distal taper predominantly near the front third of the blade.

Weight: 17 ounces.

Scales: shadetree phenolic burlap base, in black. Brass pins lightly washed with bluing.

photos:

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The idea behind the trail knife was to have a blade that would work for cutting, chopping, game finishing and rough and ready self defense. Though not necessarily intended to be the finest slicer, it will shave curls, as well as chop. Penetration is extreme, the fluid geometry just sucks right into a cut or puncture.

For the Field Dirk version I wanted a blade coating, durable handle material, and I decided to leave the tang exposed at the rear for hammering.

Dirk in this case references thew Spanigh/mediterranean dirk, which is classically single edged for defensive use with the blade spine along the forearm (in an icepick grip). As a fighting knife, the style has a long and successful history, and as a practical knife, the shape evolved into the modern chef's knife, among other things.
 
I'll offer a comment made by a friend's dad -- who was in the British Indian Army and carried one: "Vedettes (Am. 'sentries') are for the knife or the garrotte."

Considering that the gentleman served the King for over 40 years, two world wars and a longish stint in intelligence, I believe he knew what he was talking about.

Koyote's comment about a "dirty, nasty, mean shiv for dark nights and tight hallways" is right on the money.
 
And rereading the whole thread again-

i'm definitely working with more of the field dirks and chute knives- but those are over in the military thread. I do see a difference between a "field combat" and a "fighting knife" to some extent.

Or, rather, I see the fighting knife having more areas of definition.

I'll probably touch up on combat knives in this thread, still, but I see enough difference to separate them out.

The sgian dubh is a definite staple. The zog nit is VERY short, but in keeping the 7 inch OAL on a low profile fixed blade, it's viable. Only thing that might end up better would be a small karambit styled item.

I'm still very partial to the single edge dirk design, But I've been messing around with kindjahl and qama based designs a bit lately, too.
 
Hi, I'm new around here, but post quite a bit in other forums :D

I collect daggers, including Ek, Fairbairn Sykes, and Gerbers. I heard that Koyotes dagger was his take on the F/S if I'm not mistaken, but I think it looks closer to the Ek in blade design. That's a good thing in my book and look forward to testing out the Koyote dagger in due time :thumbup:

W
 
the long dagger is more like an early EK, for sure. I'm still working on how I'd do up a FS.... the chute knife- with all its Randall influence- is likely as close as I'll get for a while.

As soon as I finish the 3 of those I'm working on, I'll try and get permission to call it the Scratchard.
 
more or less. Sgt. Scratchard is a fictional character who carries a knife over a pistol for a sidearm. Aside from the messiness factor, he claims they never jam.

There's more to it, but it's... sort of a tribute
 
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